A bill that Baltimore County Health Department officials said would help prevent underage tobacco use was withdrawn Monday night just moments before the County Council was to vote on it.

The bill, sponsored at the request of County Executive Jim Smith, would have imposed a fine of $300 for a first offense and $500 for subsequent violations on any business failing to ask a person for identification if the person was trying to buy a tobacco product and appeared to be under 26 years old.

The bill would also have moved enforcement of tobacco laws from the county health department to the code enforcement office.

County attorneys told the council a week ago that the bill was needed to keep pace with a federal law passed earlier this summer requiring local jurisdictions to try to prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors.

Don Mohler, spokesman for County Executive Jim Smith, said after Monday’s council meeting that the bill would be re-introduced at a later date, but provided no specific timeline.

Mohler said passing such legislation is still an important step in preventing the sale of tobacco to people under the age of 18.

“I think that if you card everyone, then the 16-year-old high school student can’t produce an ID that says they’re legal to buy cigarettes,” Mohler said.

County Attorney John Beverungen told the council during a work session last week that aid from the federal government could be in jeopardy if the council did not approve the proposal.

“The (federal) legislation does threaten to cut funds from local governments that don’t vigorously enforce tobacco laws,” Beverungen said. “Whether that mandates us to stay in lock-step I couldn’t tell you, but there’s more than subtle encouragement.”

Mohler said Monday that county attorneys will review federal law to determine if the county needs to pass legislation that mirrors federal law or if merely enforcing the federal law is sufficient to prevent local aide from being stripped.

The federal law takes effect in June 2010.

County officials were asking the council to pass the proposed county law as emergency legislation that would go into effect Oct. 18.

Five of the seven County Council members must vote for a measure for it to pass as emergency legislation.

During last week’s council work session, it became clear that the bill might have trouble getting the four votes needed for simple passage.

“So what this is saying is that if somebody’s old enough to smoke cigarettes but if they’re under 26 and they don’t get carded, then it’s a violation of the law,” said John Olszewski, a Democrat who represents the 7th District, including Dundalk, Essex and part of Rosedale.

“That doesn’t make sense,” he said.

And Councilman Sam Moxley, a Democrat who represents the 1st District, questioned the need to pass a county version of the identification bill given that federal laws supersede local regulations. 
He added that he believed the proposed county law might be a bad idea.

“I know we’re supposedly following federal guidelines, but just because the feds put together something that is not a good bill, why do we have to follow that? ...” asked Moxley, whose district includes Arbutus and Catonsville.

“I don’t think any of us wants to do something just because the feds did it,” he said.

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